Our Scars
by Dreaming-Paradise
Summary: Instead of a Soulmate AU where everything one writes or draws appears on the other's skin, injuries, such as scars, appear instead, but do not cause physical pain to the other person.


_"Uncle Qrow? Where did this mark come from?"_

_A small child with curious silver eyes stared up at the tall man, innocently gesturing to the long, nasty, jagged scar etched into his side. "Did you get it from a big ol' mean Grimm?" The little girl asked, now wearing a happy grin on her face as though she was about to be told a story. "Did you kill it? How big was it? Was it an Ursa? What kind of Grimm was it?"_

_Glancing to the scar the kid was referring to, grief crossed through Qrow's eyes and he knelt down to the child, placing a hand on her head and smiling sadly at her. "No, kiddo, this scar isn't from Grimm." Ruby frowned in confusion and tilted her head slightly, before she could ask, Qrow answered; "I didn't get this scar from a fight, someone else did."_

_"What?" Ruby asked in bewilderment. Qrow chuckled weakly and made himself comfortable, beckoning the child into his lap and setting Harbinger aside. "Then why do you have it?" Her eyes lit up, "Oh! Is it a tattoo? Daddy has tattoos! Are they scars from other people?"_

_"No, Ruby," Qrow sighed in reluctance, "has Tai ever told you about Soulmates?"_

_Ruby's face scrunched up in thought, "Umm. . . No, I don't think so. What's a Soulmate?"_

_"A Soulmate is someone very special to you, like a husband or a wife. They are bonded to you by heart and soul, and because of this, each time their Soulmate is injured and it leaves a scar, that scar appears on the other person. It does not hurt them, but it's there." Ruby nodded in slight confusion and Qrow continued gently, "My scar was from my Soulmate. . ."_

_Ruby hummed and eyed the scar again, realization sparking in her eyes. She turned back to Qrow, "It looks really bad, like it could kill somebody! How did they survive?"_

_"They didn't." Qrow sighed in defeat, urging away the tears stinging at his eyes, "That's the downside of having a Soulmate, Ruby. Whatever scar your partner receives during their death appears on you as a reminder. . . Remnant is cruel and unforgiving."_

_"Oh. . ."_

_Qrow patted her head with a gentle smile, "Don't worry, Kiddo. Very few people have Soulmates, if you have one. . . You'll know."_

* * *

Ruby stared back at her reflection in the mirror, her eyes focused on the single, jagged scar across her left eye. She knew for a fact it wasn't there yesterday, or earlier this morning when she'd gone to town with Yang. It looked fresh, but it wasn't bleeding, and it didn't hurt at all.

"Each time their Soulmate is injured and it leaves a scar, that scar appears on the other person. It does not hurt them, but it's there."

Ruby blinked in surprise and her hand came up to touch the scar running down her eye, finding that the skin was still smooth as though it remained unblemished. It was like a drawing of some sort, but permanent. . . She had a Soulmate.

Her Soulmate was injured. Her _Soulmate_ was _injured_. They were hurt, bleeding, in pain. . .

Ruby's heart clenched and tears stung at the corners of her eyes, she rested her forehead against the mirror and drew in a shaky breath. She didn't even know this person, but the thought of them getting hurt caused her physical pain. What if something happened to them before they met, what would happen to her? The scar from their death would remain permanently etched into her skin. . . She didn't know if she could handle that.

_"How did they survive?"_

_"They didn't. . ."_

Ruby couldn't let that happen to her Soulmate. She had to find them, and when she did, she would protect them. . . Nothing would ever hurt them again if she had anything to say about it.

* * *

"What are you doing?!"

Ruby pushed herself up from the cobblestone ground and rubbed her head, lifting her knees so that the suitcase resting on her legs would slide off. Hopefully nothing was badly damaged. . . She blinked her eyes open and her gaze landed on an infuriated white-haired girl standing in front of her. So this was her luggage. . . "Sorry!" Ruby responded immediately, flinching back when rage flashed through the girl's icy blue eyes.

"'Sorry'?! Do you have any idea of the damage you could've caused?!" Yeah, she was definitely mad. Then again, she did look rather wealthy, who knows what was inside of these suitcases? Guilt struck Ruby in the heart and she carefully reached for the suitcase nearest to her, maybe if she helped her pick everything up, she'd forgive her? Unlikely, she'd probably broken some kind of expensive artifact from who knows where. But, it was worth a try.

"Give me that!" The girl snapped, snatching the suitcase from Ruby's hands and popping it open. "This is dust!" Ruby didn't respond, instead standing to her feet and zoning out as the white-haired girl ranted on about dust. When she looked at her again, Ruby's attention immediately looked to her left eye and her own silver eyes widened. The scar. . . Unconsciously, she lifted a hand and ran it over her own.

It was an exact match. . . Ruby had spent days staring at herself in the mirror, memorizing the shape of the scar so that she knew what to look for when she met her Soulmate.

"Are you even listening to me?!"

So this girl was her _Soulmate_? Ruby's brows furrowed in confusion.

"Is any of this sinking in?!"

She was beautiful to say the least, but she seemed to be very obnoxious. Hell, she wasn't even giving Ruby a chance to explain herself!

"What do you have to say for yourself?!"

Oh so now she gives her an opportunity to speak? Ruby just frowned and her gaze briefly flickered to the girl's scar, "Your scar." She said bluntly, watching as rage, confusion, and realization flickered through the other girl's eyes all in one minute. "It matches mine. . . Do you know what that means?"

Maybe now she'd be nicer to her. . . Maybe they could even become friends.

"I can see that," the girl growled in irritation, "I know very well what it means." Oh good, now they could- "It means I have an idiotic, brain-dead child as a Soulmate. Aren't you a little young to be attending Beacon? This isn't your ordinary combat school, you know!"

"Hey, I said I'm sorry, Princess!"

She stepped closer to her, leaning in and scowling at Ruby, "This means nothing if I have anything to say about it. Stay away from me, I don't need an irresponsible little girl distracting me from my studies."

Without giving Ruby a chance to defend herself, the unnamed girl turned and stalked away, leaving the men who'd apparently accompanied her to pick up her belongings.

Pain shot through Ruby's chest as she watched her walk away, "You don't even know me. . ."

* * *

They'd had three more encounters since their first meeting, and each time, Ruby tried her hardest to be nice to the girl, who she'd later learned was Weiss Schnee, but Weiss always gave her the cold shoulder. She wasn't even considering giving Ruby a chance, she seemed to have her eyes set on the redhead known as Pyrrha Nikos.

The knowledge that her Soulmate had rejected her without even getting to know her stung Ruby a little, but she wouldn't give up. Their souls were connected for a reason, right? It couldn't be a coincidence that they kept meeting up, despite Weiss making it very clear she wanted Ruby as far away from her as possible. The third time, Weiss had given in and accepted Ruby as her team partner, nothing else.

It was a start, though! If Weiss could tolerate her as a partner, maybe Ruby could eventually befriend her!

"What's the hurry?" Ruby called after her partner, who was stalking on ahead in front of her. If she could get Weiss to slow down a bit, she could talk to her.

Weiss spared her a glance over her shoulder, her voice sounding as icy and annoyed as ever. "I will not let my mission be delayed because you're too slow!" Ruby smirked at the mention of that. "I swear, if I get a bad grade because you're-" Seizing her opportunity to impress her Soulmate, Ruby activated her semblance and bolted to Weiss' side with a grin on her face. "What the-?!"

"I'm not slow, see? You don't have to worry about me!" Ruby smiled happily.

"When did-?!"

She'd finally gotten her attention, she could talk to her. "Weiss, just because I don't know how to deal with people doesn't mean I don't know how to deal with monsters. . ." Weiss folded her arms and Ruby came to her side, throwing an arm around her shoulders, "You're about to see a whole new side of me today, Weiss! And after it's all over, you'll be thinking that Ruby girl is really, really cool, and I wanna be her friend."

'Because I'll definitely be proving myself worthy of you.' Ruby thought as she dashed away, the roll of Weiss' eyes didn't go unnoticed by the young brunette. Maybe if she could find the relic, they could get out of here faster, then maybe Weiss would be proud of her. That is, if she was going in the right direction.

She was confident that she was, though. She was heading north of the cliff, that's probably where the relics would be if she'd learned anything from her video games back at home. Coming to a stop, she peered over the bushes and her silver eyes landed on what looked to be ruins with some kind of artifacts placed around it. Some students were already there.

'The relics!' She'd found them, now she just had to go and get Weiss so they could get out of here! Gathering her energy, Ruby activated her semblance and bolted back to the location where she'd left Weiss at. It'd barely been ten seconds, Weiss probably didn't even notice she was-

"Ruby!"

Weiss was in trouble. . . _'No!'_ Ruby skidded to a stop just out of sight, her heart racing when her attention landed on the pack of Beowulves that had approached her partner, probably feeding off of her aggravation. _'Get away from her.'_ She pulled Crescent Rose from her back, she could take them. If she could eliminate an entire pack of them, these would be no problem.

Her eyes moved to a Beowulf slowly approaching Weiss and Ruby made her move, jumping from the bushes and spinning her scythe all in one movement. Her blade sliced through the wolf's armored paw as she landed in front of it, the wolf roared in pain. "Gotcha!"

Behind her, she heard a startled gasp and stumbling, followed by the sound of crackling flame. "Weiss?" She looked behind her worriedly, her heart racing a mile a minute inside her chest. Hearing movement come from the wolf in front of her, she quickly held up the handle to her weapon to block the incoming blow. Unfortunately, she hadn't had a chance to steady herself before the large paw collided with the metal, sending her staggering back into Weiss.

"I could've killed you!" Weiss said to her, her voice laced with annoyance and irritation. Ruby sensed a slight bit of worry in there, too. Yeah, that's definitely why the Grimm was tracking them. . . "We have to go!" Weiss grabbed her arm, glancing around to the pack of wolves around them. Ruby shifted her weapon back into dormant and followed her, ignoring the sound of a tree crashing behind them and the wolves howling in agony.

_'She was worried about me.'_

* * *

Weiss had finally accepted her as a friend after much difficulty, and had eventually comes to terms that they were Soulmates, giving Ruby a chance to win her heart. Ruby, of course, took it as a mission and had done everything in her power to woo her new best friend, using stuff she'd learned from reading books and watching movies. Sometimes, she didn't do anything, and instead she opted to simply listen to Weiss rant about her day. Most of the time, it had been about Jaune trying to get her to go out with him and often times it was about students in their classes not paying attention to their studies.

This way, Ruby had come to learn a lot about her. Despite how she acted, Weiss actually did enjoy affection and Ruby went out of her way to pay attention to her. Some might say she was trying too hard, but in her opinion, she was making Weiss happy, that was all that mattered.

Within time, she'd won the heiress' heart, one of her proudest achievements yet. Weiss had been a bit reluctant at first, and only two days later did she accept that Ruby was cuddly and affectionate. Ruby thinks she secretly enjoyed it, but she couldn't say that out-loud because she knew Weiss would deny it. After about six months, Ruby had begun to whisper quiet, loving things under her breath as Weiss fell asleep. She didn't care that their teammates could hear them.

When the tournaments rolled around, things started to become darker.

First Yang had been framed. . . Penny was killed. . . Ruby remembered trying to stay by Weiss' side when they'd been reunited, having constantly checked herself for 'death scars' during their time apart. Her plan was to kill Cinder and save Pyrrha, and return to Weiss' side and protect her until they all got out safely.

Unfortunately, things didn't go according to plan. . . She'd run up the tower and all she remembered was seeing white, and the next thing she knew she was waking up in her bed back in Patch. . . Penny was gone, and so was Pyrrha. . . Ruby had only felt a small portion of relief when she learned Weiss had been taken back to Atlas uninjured, but Blake was missing, and Yang had lost her arm and a fresh scar had appeared on her abdomen. She wouldn't say anything about where it had come from.

When meeting up with JNR, she learned that Jaune had an arrow-shaped scar just above his chest and no questions were asked about where it came from. They all knew, and not a single one of them had the heart to talk about it.

For the next few months, she'd traveled with Jaune, Nora, and Ren, searching for the people responsible for the fall of Beacon. They had nothing so far. . . They stumbled across some dangerous abandoned cities, Qrow was poisoned, they killed a Nuckelavee in Ren's former hometown, learned that Ozpin's soul had went into a young boy by the name of Oscar. . .

Every now and then, Ruby's mind would wander back to Weiss and she would check for any new scars. She couldn't get into contact with her. . . She didn't know if she was still in Atlas safe and sound, and it bothered her. But, she pushed all of her worries to the back of her mind and focused on her friends she was traveling with.

They had to be her main concern right now. She couldn't get distracted.

"Alright, the first batch is just about done!" Ren announced, snapping Ruby out of her thoughts.

"Awesome! Now we just need Qrow and we'll be all set!" Apparently Qrow had set out to find people to help them with their mission, and they would be feeding them dinner. . .

"Do you really think he's gonna bring that many people?" Nora asked, "This is a lot of food."

Without looking at the redhead, Ruby responded, "Uh, I don't know. But it sounds like we could use all the help we can get."

"I'm back!" Qrow called through the house, alerting them of his return. Oh good, now she had to socialize. . .

"Be right there!" Ruby said in response, looking over her shoulder.

Ren leaned over, staring down at the food in the pan. "You're going to overcook that."

Well, it looked fine to her! Psch, what did he know? "No, I'm not! Shut up!"

"Hey, uh, Ruby!" Qrow called again.

"I'm coming!" A light poof came from the pan in front of her and Ruby paused momentarily. Well then. . . "Fine, you take over." She muttered to the tall man beside her. Moving to the side so that he could grab the pan, Ruby took the tray sitting next to the stove and started for the lounge without looking up, "So. . . We didn't know how many people were coming, so we just cooked all of it."

Looking up, her eyes widened. The tray fell from her hands, crashing down on the floor and she stepped back. _'Yang. . . Weiss. . .'_

* * *

"Are you sure you're okay. . .?" Ruby whispered as she closed the door behind her, her eyes immediately glancing down to Weiss' bloodstained skirt. She was hurt. . . She was almost killed. . . Ruby had failed, she didn't protect her. What kind of partner/Soulmate was she? "Does it hurt?" She asked as Weiss carefully began to untie her sash, sliding it off so that she could remove her dress.

"No." Weiss said calmly as Ruby approached, tenderly placing a hand on the spear-shaped scar located on Weiss' waist. Although the bleeding had stopped and her aura had been restored, the scar still remained. "Not a lot at least." Weiss whispered as Ruby knelt down, caressing the fresh wound gently as though she would hurt the older girl. "I'm fine, Ruby. I promise. I just need to repair my dress. . . Can you do that for me?"

Ruby looked up, "Of course," she smiled, "I'm sorry I couldn't protect you. . ." The smile faded away and Ruby cast her gaze downwards, trying to ignore the stinging pain inside her chest. She'd come so close to losing her. . . All because she wasn't paying attention! Two gentle fingers tilted her chin bup and her silver eyes met with Weiss' affectionate blue pair. "Weiss. . ."

"I'm alright," Weiss said softly, "I'm alive, I'm here, my heart is still beating and my blood is still pumping. A few little scars won't stop that. My scars are your scars, remember?"

"But, Weiss, you almost died! I could've lost you!" Ruby protested, taken aback by how easily Weiss joked about it.

"And now I have a story to tell!" The former heiress giggled lightly, "Now, since it appears that we'll be alone for a while, why don't you finally tell me about your adventures with JNR? I know you probably have some stories to tell as well, and I have all night to listen."

"Weiss. Your scars-"

The heiress rolled her eyes, pulling Ruby up into the bed beside her. "Shhh, my love. Let's just enjoy this, alright? We can talk about the bad stuff later if you want."

"Fine. . . I love you."

"I love you too."

* * *

"Mommy? Mama? What is a Soulmate?"

Ruby's eyes glanced towards the woman sitting beside her and her heart fluttered when Weiss met her gaze. Ruby sighed as she eased herself into the floor in front of their children, they had three children; a dust daughter named Eira Rose, and two children from the same donor named Kirsi Rose, their daughter, and Aspen Rose, their son. Weiss had carried Eira, Ruby carried Kirsi, and a month after Kirsi was born, Weiss had a son.

"Well, Aspen. . . " Ruby whispered as Weiss joined her, "A Soulmate is somebody you share your heart and soul with. They'll be there through life's joys and sorrows, stick with you through thick and thin, and, well, the downside is that every scar you have will appear on them as well. . . Though, sometimes, this helps certain Soulmates bond."

Eira, the oldest child at twelve years old, frowned in confusion, soon followed by realization. "Oh, so that's why you guys have matching scars. . . I thought it was just a coincidence."

Weiss chuckled, glancing down at their five-year old daughter climbing into her lap. "No," she smiled as she threaded her fingers through her daughter's cherry-red hair, "these are our scars. They're the only reason your mother and I managed to find each other." She looked to Ruby, "I like to think of it as. . . Every burden you carry, your Soulmate will also carry so that you are not alone. . ."

Ruby's eyes lit up and she leaned away in mock offense, "Weiss! Are you calling our children burdens? How could you?"

"Oh you know what I meant." Weiss rolled her eyes.

Ruby just giggled and turned to Aspen, who seemed to be wearing a dangerously thoughtful expression. "Hey now, Aspen, don't go getting yourself injured just so you can search for your Soulmate. What kind of story would that be when you meet?"

The child pouted, "But how will I know it's them?"

"Well," Ruby turned her attention back to Weiss, who met her gaze, "you'll just know. . . Even if they are a pain when you first meet."

"Hey, you have to admit, you were an annoying child." Weiss defended herself, "You wouldn't leave me alone."

"I still won't leave you alone!" Ruby grins, "Does that mean I'm still an annoying child?"

"Yes." Weiss deadpanned, ignoring their children watching them with amused smirks on their faces.

"I love you too." Ruby giggled.


End file.
